Comparison of the rocket engines efficiency in the case of low thrust orbit-to-orbit transfers

Abstract

The main task of this paper is to compare two types of low thrust rocket engines: constant thrust vs. variable-thrust engines. We will be concerned with efficiency, where efficiency is evaluated in the case of the orbit-to-orbit transfer with maximum payload mass in the central Newtonian gravity field. The launch mass of the space vehicle is supposed to be fixed. The traditional solution is the decomposition of the problem into parametric and dynamical parts. The corresponding variational problems differ for two rocket thruster types under consideration. We propose change of variables, which makes it possible to reduce averaged equations of optimal motion of a spacecraft with the mentioned engines to the unified form. Using this unified form comparison of the performance of constant- and variable-thrust engines is conducted.